Looking to live on a sailboat?

Question

I am in the process of simplifying my life. I would like to do a live aboard for a few months and take sailing lessons. I am looking anywhere from the Central Coast of Cali to the Central Coast of Oregon. I am also interested in living on a house boat.

Answer 1

You, and a lot of other folks.

Live aboard situations are tight. Finding a marina with an available slip that allows live aboards is going to be your main problem. In So. Cal most marinas allow 10% of their slips to be occupied by live aboards. (Many more are occupied by sneak aboards).

For further info on availability try this site.

http://www.thelog.com

Answer 2

The houseboats in SF BAy are fantastic. Stay away from Port San Lucas, That place really sux!

For a live aboard, think about head room, if the weather is bad and you can't go outside, you need to ba able to stand. Also think about how far you have to go to use the bathroom. I wouldn't take lessons in the boat that you live in. Too much stuff to break.

Answer 3

Get the sailing lessons first.  Garrison is correct: it's fairly easy to learn the basic mechanics of sailing, but there is much more to sailing a live-aboard keelboat than just sailing mechanics.  Both US Sailing and ASA offer courses and certifications that are very comprehensive and will give you the knowledge necessary to operate a larger boat safely.

Both organizations offer similar courses and certifications for Basic Keelboat, Basic Coastal Cruising, Navigation, Bareboat Charter, Advanced Coastal Cruising, Celestial Navigation, and Offshore Passagemaking.  If you are looking to live-aboard at a marina and sail occasionally, the first three certs (or courses teaching the same) should suffice.  If you plan to move around a lot, or sail offshore, the more advanced courses should be considered mandatory.

I taught myself to sail on a very small dinghy on a lake, but when I "graduated" to keelboats on the ocean, I needed to learn navigation, docking, anchoring, VHF radio operation, systems operation and maintenance, etc.  I highly recommend "Sailing for Dummies" and "Annapolis Book of Seamanship" if you enjoy the self-teaching route, but nothing beats instruction from an experienced sailor.  The two instructors I had were sailors with over 20 years of offshore sailing experience each, who had forgotten more about sailing that I will ever know.

Answer 4

I live on a sailboat - a 26ft catamaran - but I make sure that she is fully functional and will go anywhere that I want to go on a whim! If you liveaboard and want to sail also it is best to keep clutter to a minimum and keep your boat "shipshape" all the time.

I am still learning how to sail in differing conditions - there is always something new to learn - but it is a great lifestyle especially if you want to get away from being landlocked and paying all the bills that are required nowadays for the privilege of living in a house!

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by

the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw

off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the

trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover"

Mark Twain

Answer 5

There is more to it than that.  For one thing LEARNING to sail is easy... I can teach anyone to sail in half an hour or less... but it takes a lifetime to get good at it.

Basically... you let out the sheets... that's those ropes tied to the big floppy things called sails... then you aim the pointy end where you want to go... then you pull in the ropes (sheets) until the boat starts to move... if the boat doesn't move and the big floppy things just flop... then let out the ropes again, stick the pointy end in another direction and repeat the pulling in of the ropes... eventually you will find a direction the boat wants to go...  and THAT is all there is to learning how to sail.

As for living aboard... I thought California had rules and regulations about that now.